“I’ve never been busier.”
This is the most common answer I hear from people when I ask them “How is work going?” Every seems to be overwhelmed with work. But that, I find, is not the real problem.
We’ve always had a lot of work to do. Bosses were more strict, angry and demanding in the 80s than they are now. We had to dig like pirates to discover information treasures.
In today’s world, we have better bosses (on average), easier access to information, but still we are falling behind.
My conclusion is that we haven’t yet mastered the art of prioritization.
Let’s change this.
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance
This line from Brian Tracy changed my word.
Back in 2011, I was struggling. I was overworked, low on self-esteem and wondering what I should be doing with my life. Then I discovered Brian Tracy and this quote: “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.”
It changed everything.
In one of his talks, he suggested a prioritization tool that could help reduce the amount of wasteful work and increase my output by 10x.
The tool: The Eisenhower Matrix.
Use this tool to prioritize your work by splitting your tasks into these four categories:
- Urgent and Important
- Urgent and Not Important
- Not Urgent and Important
- Not Urgent and Not Important
Let’s break down each of these categories.
Urgent and Important
Tasks that are urgent and important are your priority. Do them as soon as possible. In the Matrix, they fall into the green square.
For example:
- Reply to a customer complaint
- Working on a tax return
Urgent and Not Important
Tasks that are not important but need to be done should be delegated to someone else, or postponed for later.
For example:
- Replying to an email
- Responding to a slack message
Not Urgent and Important
Tasks that are important but not urgent, should be scheduled.
For example:
- Making a doctors appointment
- Having 1:1 with an employee
Not Urgent and Not Important
Delete these tasks. All of them. They are not useful to you and create no value.
Today’s Action Steps
To get more done in less time, you have to dedicate a little bit of time for planning
Here’s what you can do today:
- Write out a list of tasks you need done in the next 5 days.
- Group them into Urgent and Not Urgent category.
- Draw the Eisenhower Matrix.
- Place the tasks, taking care to arrange them on order of importance and urgency.
- Remove Not urgent and Not Important tasks.
You will end up with a list of tasks that will bring value to you when you accomplish them. Do the tasks in the Do section of the Matrix.
Outro
That’s how you can get more done in less time. Use the Brian Tracy quote to put your mind into planning mode. Use the Eisenhower Matrix to plan and prioritize your work.
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And that’s all for this week. See you next Monday.
P.S. I’d love to hear what challenges you are facing in your business. What can I write about to help you personally?
Reply to this email to let me know.